


Relative to Ourselves

by lloydsglasses



Series: Series 10 Fics and Drabbles [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Christmas, Cross-Generational Friendship, Drabble, Episode: s10e01 The Pilot, Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 14:56:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10642209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lloydsglasses/pseuds/lloydsglasses
Summary: Bill has no idea whether students are supposed to buy presents for their tutors, but she sees the rug and thinks,what the hell.





	

She sees the rug in a discount store.

Bill gazes at it for a long moment, hesitating. Do students ever really buy Christmas presents for their tutors? She definitely never did at school.

The Doctor is different though. No one else has ever singled her out like this; the teachers at school hadn’t believed she could succeed – not at a university – and they certainly hadn’t ever encouraged her to try. But the Doctor does. More than that it’s like he expects it, like the idea that she could fail hasn’t even occurred to him. It’s sort of nice, in a way, to finally feel the weight of someone’s expectation rather than their disappointment. On top of all that, Bill likes talking to him. He’s interesting, and can even be funny at times, when he forgets to be stern and aloof. Bill thinks she probably spends more time talking to him than she does anyone else these days.

In their last tutorial he’d been complaining about one of the rugs in his office – complaining in that absent sort of way of his, the one that means his mind is only half paying attention but his mouth doesn’t want to stop talking.

“What’s wrong with it?” Bill remembers asking. The Doctor had blinked, suddenly present in the moment again at the sound of her voice. His eyes flicked towards the rug in question, resting on it for a moment.

“Well, it’s too cream,” he said, as if it were obvious. “Why would anyone make a rug and decide it should be cream? Were they planning to drop a dessert on it?” **1**

The rug in the discount store is more red than cream. It has geometric patterns on it that look a bit like space invaders – or stars, perhaps, if stars went 8-bit. For some reason, Bill thinks the Doctor would probably like it.

She really doesn’t know whether students are supposed to buy presents for their tutors, but she sees the rug and thinks, _what the hell._

\--

The Doctor seems baffled when she hands it over to him, just stares at her from beneath those frowny eyebrows and says nothing.

“Christmas present,” Bill prompts, sitting down in her usual chair as casually as she can and trying not to feel awkward. The Doctor’s eyes move slowly from her face to the gift in his hands. “You’re supposed to open it.”

“It’s a rug,” he states, once the paper’s been torn aside. There’s no inflection in his voice, though he does follow it up with a marginally panicked sounding, “I haven’t got you anything.”

Bill wasn’t really expecting anything.

He doesn’t say thank you, but once he’s finished rummaging around in his desk drawers and produced a pair of Christmas crackers and a plate stacked impossibly high with biscuits, he props the rug up against the table next to him and rests his hand on it. Bill catches him looking at it whenever their conversation lapses into silence, sees the way his fingers gently brush back and forth against the fabric.

He doesn’t say thank you, but Bill thinks she’s all right with that.

\--

 **1** Bill, being Bill, asked why he had it in the first place if he didn’t like it. _Well I might get bored of pastries,_ was all the Doctor had said, and before she could decide what to make of that he passed her a copy of _Richard III_ and asked her what she knew about iambic pentameter. If Bill’s honest with herself these types of exchanges have become a regular occurrence.

**Author's Note:**

> Because Bill is fab and I adore her already. <3
> 
> Also because who buys a tutor a rug as a Christmas present Bill you are precious


End file.
